What Was Halliburton’s Role in the Gulf Spill?

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The probe into what exactly caused the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon and the subsequent environmental catastrophe has expanded to Halliburton, which poured the cement for the drill hole. House investigators want to know what role the energy services giant may have played in the rig explosion.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has requested that Halliburton president and CEO David J. Lesar “provide the Committee with any documents in your possession or that you have prepared that relate to the causes or potential causes of the Deepwater Horizon rig incident.” Lesar has been called to testify at a May 12 hearing on the explosion. Also appearing at the hearing will be Lamar McKay of BP America Inc. and Steve Newman of Transocean Ltd.

“Halliburton continues to assist in efforts to identify the factors that may have lead up to the disaster, but it is premature and irresponsible to speculate on any specific causal issues,” the company said in a statement. The company also said that “the cement slurry design was consistent with that utilized in other similar application” and that “tests demonstrating the integrity of the production casing string were completed.”

Halliburton also poured the cement for a rig that caused a major spill into the Timor Sea off the coast of western Australia last August. That spill continued for months, and the rig eventually caught fire. Ultimately, 1.2 million gallons of oil seeped into the surrounding sea.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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